Restart Options not working as expected on policy

cwenner
New Contributor II

Hello all. I currently have a policy that is configured to do Software Updates via Apple's Software Update Server and Restart if required. Below are the options for the Restart Options configuration:

STARTUP DISK: Current Startup Disk
NO USER LOGGED IN ACTION: Restart Immediately
USER LOGGED IN ACTION: Restart if a package or update requires it
- Perform authenticated restart on computers with FileVault 2 enabled: Checked
- Delay: 2 minutes
- Start the restart timer immediately: Checked

The user is instructed to keep their machine on and plugged into power during the update time frame. The problem is that when this policy executes, the computer never appears to reboot. The following is an example log output from the policy.

Executing Policy FORCE: OS Updates with Restart Setting Software Update preferences to apple.com for all accounts... Installing all available Software Updates... Result of Software Update: Software Update Tool Finding available software Downloading macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Supplemental Update Installing macOS Mojave 10.14.3 Supplemental Update Done. You have installed one or more updates that requires that you restart your computer. Please restart immediately. To automate the restart process with softwareupdate(8), use --restart. A reboot was required with one or more of the installed updates. Software update finished. Reboot is required. Blessing i386 macOS System on /... Creating Reboot Script...

The machine will not do anything once it has reached this point, unless the user logs back in. Once the user logs in, it will show the notification of a restart being performed, it will restart, then apply the update. Ideally, I would like the machine to reboot and apply the changes without user interaction. Does anyone know what is going on here? Does it come down to the user not being logged in when the policy executes? Any help or advice is much appreciated. Thank you!

1 REPLY 1

kjennings
New Contributor II

I have this same problem! The policy is configured to force the restart but after showing the message it just sits and waits and never reboots itself. The user must manually initiate the reboot. My policy logs look similar to the above. Why isn't the machine restarting on its own?
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